Delivery, organization, and redemption of virtual offers from the internet, interactive-TV, wireless devices and other electronic means

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are methods and systems for redeeming virtual coupons by associating the coupons with consumers&#39; credit cards for redemption. In disclosed methods, coupon databases are associated with consumers and associated with the consumers&#39; credit cards. Coupon offers are stored in the coupon databases and are redeemed by consumers by the use of the credit cards that are associated with the consumers&#39; coupon databases.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to and is a divisional application ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/262,767, which has a filing date ofOct. 1, 2002, which is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/081,257, which has a filing date of Feb. 22,2002, and application Ser. No. 09/611,672, which has a filing date ofJul. 7, 2000, both of which claim priority to the following provisionalpatent applications: 60/142,611, filed Jul. 7, 1999, and 60/191,352,filed Mar. 22, 2000. The above applications—Ser. No. 10/262,767, Ser.No. 10/081,257, Ser. No. 09/611,672, 60/142,611, and 60/191,352—arehereby incorporated by reference into this application. This applicationis further related to commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/309,989, which has a filing date of May 11, 1999, which is alsohereby incorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

Coupons are an effective way direct marketers use to drive customers totheir stores. Coupons can be for a specific store or for a specificitem. Challenges for the use of coupons can be broken into threeareas: 1) delivery, 2) organization, and 3) redemption.

Paper coupons are a traditional method of attracting new consumers.These paper coupons have traditionally been delivered to consumersthrough printed media and through direct mail marketing. Delivery ofprinted paper coupons is expensive for the marketer, and it is alsodifficult for the marketer to narrowly target the paper coupons to thosemost likely to use them, given the typical breadth of traditionalprinted media and direct mail lists. In addition to incurring the costof printing and delivering the offer, the marketer incurs the cost oftraining personnel to accept the offer at the Point of Sale (“POS”), thetime it takes the personnel to input the coupon at the POS, the cost tostore the paper offer and the cost to audit the offer. In addition,there is a fraud cost associated with the use of paper coupons.

Once the coupon is delivered to the consumer, the consumer then clips orselects the paper coupons. As far as the consumer is concerned,organizing paper coupons is difficult and time-consuming. Consumersoften place their paper coupons in a kitchen drawer or other unorganizedreceptacle. The coupons oftentimes are unredeemed in the drawer, andultimately expire, unused. The consumers often fail to redeem thecoupons because it is difficult for them to find needed coupons or evenremember that they have coupons that can be applied to their purchases.Further, consumers may forget to take their coupons with them to thestore or may not have the coupons with them for other reasons. In sum,the paper coupons are difficult for the consumer to clip, organize, andto redeem at the POS.

On-line marketing is increasingly common, as on-line marketers arereadily able to rent lists from list owners and send, through masse-mailings, e-mail offers to the thousands of consumers on the listowner's list. Paperless coupons delivered through these methods andsystems can be redeemed at on-line merchants without the necessity ofprinting those coupons, such as by delivering a coupon codeelectronically and having the consumer manually input the code at theonline payment page. For brick-and-mortar merchants, however, theconsumer is still left with the classic problem of having to create anduse paper coupons, such as by printing out the electronically deliveredcoupon offers. Thus, consumers are again confronted with theorganizational and redemption associated with paper coupons. Further tothe above approaches, although marketers have avoided the costs ofprinting and delivery of the offers, the marketers still facesignificant costs associated with fraud and fraud detection, auditing ofthe paper coupons, and with training of personnel at the POS.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Parent applications to this application have described novel ways todeliver, organize, and redeem paperless coupons or other promotionaloffers. The present application continues to build on those priorapplications, from which priority has been claimed herein and which havebeen incorporated by reference herein. For example, provisional patentapplication U.S. Application No. 60/142,611, filed Jul. 7, 1999,disclosed, among other things, the associating of accepted coupon offerswith credit cards along with embodiments describing how paperless orvirtual coupons could be delivered to the consumers and redeemed by theconsumers, including by the use of consumers' credit cards to makequalified product or service purchases. U.S. Application No. 60/191,352,filed Mar. 22, 2000, described, among other things, methods and systemsfor automatically organizing paperless coupons and other virtualdocuments, as does U.S. application Ser. No. 09/611,672, filed Jul. 7,2000, which claims priority from the Jul. 7, 1999 and Mar. 22, 2000applications.

The foregoing applications, and also U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/081,257, further describe different delivery and organizationmethods, including the delivery of paperless coupon offers to PDAs,wireless PDAs and interactive television.

The embodiments described in this application merge electronic deliveryof on-line or virtual coupon offers with consumers' payment systems.Payment systems include credit cards, debit cards, electronic paymentaccounts, consumer billing systems, cell-phone-based electronic paymentsystems, and PDA-based electronic coupon systems. Further applicationsfor the promotional offers can be for reward-type incentives, such asfrequent flyer miles or other “points” or “credits” that may beredeemable for reward goods and/or services.

The merger of these approaches result in the electronic delivery ofvirtual, paperless coupons or promotional offers. Paperless redemptionat the point of sale or on the consumers' payment systems statements arealso enabled by embodiments disclosed in this application. To use thedescribed approaches, consumers would associate, as an example, a creditcard with a coupon database, such that coupons stored in the coupondatabase can automatically be redeemed by the consumer when makingqualifying purchases. In some embodiments, the consumer also has apersonal coupon website, where the consumer can “clip” and save coupons,thereby allowing the consumer to organize his or her coupons at apersonal website for organizing the coupons saved in the personalwebsite. The above approaches allow the consumer to manage his or hercoupons at the personal website, while also associating the coupondatabase with the consumer's payment system. The consumer, by using hisor her associated payment system, is accordingly able to readily redeemaccepted coupon offers stored in the coupon database.

In embodiments described in this application, systems and methods areprovided for delivering a paperless coupon offer to a consumer andallowing the consumer to accept that offer without having to provide theconsumer's credit card information. This approach mitigates consumers'natural reluctance to provide credit card information in response to abanner ad or email.

Embodiments described in this application accordingly provide for thedelivery or communication of paperless offers through email, cell phone,satellite phone, land-based or wired phones, wireless PDAs, kiosks,interactive TV, two-way pagers, wireless networks, or othercommunication systems and devices. The paperless offer can bepre-associated with the consumers' payment systems (e.g., credit card,debit card, bank card, or other payment system). For example, listowners such as Yahoo!, AOL and Amazon (all marks of their respectiveowners) may have three important pieces of data: 1) an email address, 2)permission to offer third party offers to their consumer's emailaddress, and 3) credit card numbers. With this information, the aboveembodiments can be practically implemented.

In embodiments described below, the marketer or advertiser who makes thecoupon or other promotional offers to the consumers may not have accessto the consumers' credit card information. “Advertiser” as used in thisapplication includes product manufacturers, merchants, and othercompanies or entities desiring to make a promotional offer. Onemechanism to associate the consumers with their credit cards withoutgiving that information to the marketer or advertiser would be throughcard-matching agents. Such card-matching agents would typically receivelists of consumers' identifiers, such as consumers' email addresses, andtheir credit card information.

In such approaches, an offer may be created by a merchant or otheradvertiser with the help of the list owner's agent or list manager, orthe advertiser's agent, the list broker. The list manager creates theoffer and enables it to be organized (in some embodiments) and redeemedpaperlessly. For example, the list manager may take a 10% off offer forRetailer XYZ and then pre-organize the offer as “apparel,” “furniture,”“grocery,” “hardware,” merchandise,” or some other category (see FIG.4). The list manager then gives the offer an identifier number. The listowner then delivers the limits of the offer to the matching agent. Thelist manager then appends the consumer's email address to the emailitself. When the consumer “clicks” or accepts the enabled offer, it willcause an electronic acceptance message to be sent to the list manager,where the message comprises the email address that was associated withthe offer identifier number when the offer was sent to the consumer.Upon receipt, the list manager transmits the email address and offeridentifier to the matching agent, which then associates the emailaddress with the consumer's associated credit card and adds the couponidentifier to the consumer's coupon database for later matching to aretail good or service transaction in which the consumer redeemed thepromotional offer. The coupon database may be a simple database at thematching agent side or at the marketer site or at another location, orit may be an organized, consumer-manageable database such as describedin FIG. 4 and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/611,672. There mayalso be both types of databases, and the data contained in thosedatabases can be synchronized according to system design requirements.Promotional offers or coupon offers are described herein in embodimentsrelating to “money-off” purchasing of goods or services. Suchpromotional offers or coupon offers may also encompass purchasedvouchers or tickets or other items that are redeemable or otherwise havevalue. Still other promotional offers may relate to redeemable “rewardpoints” or similar incentives that can be redeemed by consumers forgoods or services.

In one implementation of such an embodiment, a list owner transfers aconsumer identifier (e.g., an e-mail address) and the credit card numberassociated with the consumer to a matching agent. A promotional offer isthen created for an advertiser. The offer is built into an email, whichis forwarded to the consumer at the consumer's email address. The emailcontains embedded within it a consumer identifier, which may be theconsumer's email address or encoded credit card information or otheridentifier. Upon receipt of the offer by a consumer, with one click of abutton several things can happen: (1) the consumer identifier isforwarded via XML or other protocol to the matching agent along with thepaperless coupon identifier; (2) the matching agent then takes theidentifier, in this case the email address, and associates it with thecredit card number that it has on file; and (3) the matching agent orother entity associates the paperless coupon offer with the consumer'scredit card or other payment system.

Once the coupon offer has been accepted and associated with a consumer'scredit card or other payment system, the consumer can redeem the couponoffer using his or her credit card or other payment system to purchasethe product or service referred to in the coupon offer. At this point,the merchant sends data of the purchase to the card-matching agent, whowould then match the credit card transaction to the appropriateconsumer's coupon database in order to determine whether a discountshould be applied. If the conditions of the offer are met, a discountwould be applied. Notice of the discount to the consumer could bedelivered either at the retail location itself at the time of purchaseor via email, and notice could also be given in the consumer's creditcard statement.

The above summary has outlined the embodiments described in thisapplication, but should be used in the context of the entirespecification to illustrate some of the features of these embodiments.Accordingly, other features and a fuller understanding of theseembodiments may be had by referring to the entire specification. None ofthese embodiments are limiting of the scope of the invention, which mustbe determined by the claims set forth in the claims section.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for a promotional offer distribution,organization, and redemption system;

FIG. 2 provides an exemplary screenshot of an email-delivered version ofa promotional offer;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary pop-up window that could be presented to aconsumer after the consumer's acceptance of a promotional offer;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary screen shot from a graphical user interface forthe coupon database organizer;

FIG. 5 illustrates a screen shot of an acknowledgement message sent uponredemption of an accepted promotional offer;

FIG. 6 is an exemplary process flow diagram for the collection andredemption of promotional offers;

FIG. 7 illustrates a data structure of an exemplary promotional offer;

FIG. 8 provides an exemplary block diagram of a promotional offerdistribution, organization, and redemption system;

FIG. 9 provides an exemplary block diagram of another embodiment of apromotional offer distribution, organization, and redemption system; and

FIG. 10 provides still another exemplary block diagram of an embodimentof a promotional offer distribution, organization, and redemptionsystem.

All of these drawings are illustrations of certain embodiments. Thescope of the claims is not limited to the specific embodimentsillustrated in the drawings and described below.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Shown in FIG. 1 is a block diagram for a couponoffer/organization/redemption system 100 in which consumers are eachprovided with a coupon database 102 that can be associated with theconsumers' payment system, such as credit card, debit card, electronicfund transfer account or other payment means. The consumers' virtualcoupons are stored in their coupon databases 102, which would be underthe control of a marketer 104, which provides, through virtual document106, coupon offers to consumers through email, through websites on theInternet, or through other networks 105. The consumers receive, accept,and manage the coupon offers in the virtual coupon database through theconsumers' personal computers 110, Personal Digital Assistants (“PDAs”)112, or other electronic devices 109 (see FIG. 10).

Within or external to the marketer site 104 is provided a credit cardinterface 108, which is used to link coupons stored and associated withconsumers' coupon databases 102 with credit card transactions that arebeing cleared through the credit card mainframe 132. Through theselinkages, proper credit can be applied in those instances in whichconsumers have redeemable coupons for products they have purchasedstored in their associated coupon database 102.

Many possible coupon offer variations, as well as variation in coupondelivery mechanisms, are possible. For example, the virtual couponoffers can be delivered to the consumers 103 through mobiles phones,wireless PDAs, interactive televisions, two-way pagers or otherelectronic communication systems. It is further possible through theconsumers' electronic communications systems to detect where theconsumers 103 are located and thereby to target offers to consumers 103based on their location. For example, when connecting through wirelessconnections, the particular wireless tower or access point (see FIG. 10)through which the consumer 103 is connecting to the network 105 can bedetected, whereby geographic-specific offers can be made to a pluralityof consumers 103. As further examples, a particular consumer's locationcan be detected by use of: satellite-based positioning systems;triangulation from land-based radio transmissions; detection of whichtransmission tower is communicating with a consumer's cell-basedelectronic device; and detection of a communication hub communicatingwith a consumer's local-area-network-based electronic device.

The direct association of paperless coupon offers with the consumers'payment systems can make the targeted offers more flexible. In aspecific example, an offer can be made to a consumer 103 for a store 120that is close to the consumer 103 based on the consumers' location. Suchoffers could, for example, be advantageously delivered to consumers'portable devices, such as cell phones or wireless PDAs, based on theconsumers' detected locations. Rather than delivering an offer to bedisplayed on such portable devices for display to a merchant as a meansof redemption, the present embodiments allow consumers to electronicallyaccept the offers and have those offers be associated with theconsumers' credit cards or other payment systems. As with paper coupons,this electronic acceptance and association with the consumers' paymentsystem also mitigates against possible fraudulent attempts to redeeminvalid offers, such as by displaying a contrived or unauthorized offerscreen to the merchants. The described embodiments further may negatethe need for the merchant to install additional equipment, such as mightbe used if an accepted offer were to be electronically “beamed” from theconsumers' portable devices to the merchant POS terminal 102 or otherequipment at the merchant POS.

Another exemplary system would be for the delivery of promotional offersto cell phones or PDAs to be made by a cell phone service provider (orother wireless communications provider) to act as the list owner. Thecell phone company would then provide the list of consumer electroniccontact addresses (e.g., cell phone numbers) and credit card numbers toa matching agent, which in turn would build an offer. The offer wouldthen be delivered to the cell phones via instant messaging or some othermeans, and the consumers could then “click” to accept the offer or takeother action (e.g. press a number key, vocalize an acceptance) to acceptthe offer and have it associated with the consumers' payment systems.

Because the consumer has been freed from the necessity of printing outthe coupon or otherwise downloading it to a local device, the consumer103 can simply accept the offer and thereby associate it with theconsumer's credit card or other payment system. Also, because of theimmediacy of storing coupon offers on the consumer's payment system, aswell as the trackability of where the offer has been clicked oraccepted, it is readily possible to make the offer time-adaptable. Forexample, the consumer 103 might be in the vicinity of Retailer XYZ 120,and the consumer accordingly might be given an offer for 25% off ofpurchases at that retailer made within 3 hours (or, as another example,the same day). The offer might decrease 5% in value during the next timeperiod (e.g., between 3 hours and 12 hours or during the next day), anddecrease another 5% in the next period, and so on.

When the capability of locating a consumer is coupled with the offeringof time-triggered and time-sensitive offers, certain synergies emerge.For example, a consumer 103 might be “out on the town” on a Saturdaynight with their cell phone (see, e.g., FIG. 10). Given the time and theconsumer's location, the consumer 103 might receive a real-time couponoffer on their cell phone (or PDA or similar device) for a close-byeatery or nightclub 120. The offer might be good only for the evening,or it might be worth less at a later time or date. By accepting theoffer, the consumer 103 may accordingly associate the offer with theircredit card, and the offer can then be readily redeemed at the localarea, while the consumer is still in that area. By this approach, notonly is the delivery, acceptance, and redemption of the coupon offerstreamlined relative to traditional coupon delivery method, but it alsomore effectively targets the market for the paperless coupon offerrelative to more traditional approaches.

To redeem his or her coupons, the consumers 103 visit the merchants120—traditional or online—connected to the network as shown in FIG. 1.In this embodiment, the consumer redeems his coupons by the use of anassociated credit card issued by the credit card issuer 130. The onlineor traditional merchant 120 would communicate with the credit cardissuing bank 130 whenever the consumers' payment systems are presentedto the merchants 120. At a traditional merchant, for instance, thecredit cards would be run at the Point-Of-Sale (“POS”) Terminal 122. ThePOS Terminals 122 would typically communicate through a secureconnection to the credit card mainframe 132. This secure connection maybe through a security interface unit 125 provided at both ends of theconnection between the merchant 120 and the credit card bank 130. Theconnection between the retailer 120 and the credit card bank 130 couldbe through the Internet or through traditional point-to-pointcommunications, such as leased or dial-up telecommunications data lines.

Although the functional block represented by the card issuer 130 isshown as a single credit card mainframe at a single site, this broadfunction may be more specifically implemented using at least twoseparate sites and/or computer systems. One site as an example would bethe acquiring or merchant servicing bank site, which would interfacewith the merchant 120 receiving Authorization Requests and returningApproval Codes through the security interface 125. The second site inthe example would be the credit card issuing bank, which wouldcommunicate with the acquiring bank computer system to gather thetransaction data and communicate with the credit card interface servers108 in order to determine when to apply appropriate discounts to theconsumers' credit card statement. Both the first and the second site arefunctionally encompassed within the card issuer 130.

For example, the credit card approval and clearing operation may occuras follows. The consumer would bring his associated credit card to themerchant 120 after the consumer has had electronic coupons stored in hiscoupon database 102. The consumer would then give his card to themerchant employee, who would swipe the card through a credit card readerassociated with the POS Terminal 122 as is normally done in a creditcard transaction. The merchant 120 would then communicate with thecredit card computer system 130 in order to seek an authorization codefor the transaction from the credit card computer system. The creditcard computer system 130 may then communicate with the marketer computersystem 104 to determine whether the consumer is entitled to a coupondiscount according to that consumer's purchases at the merchant 130. Itis also possible that the credit card system 130 would gather thenecessary data offline, e.g., separate from the regular credit cardauthorization process. The interface for this coupon clearing processmay alternatively be an entirely parallel network between the merchant120 and the credit card computer systems 130.

The consumer discount can be applied in a number of ways. One way is totransmit the discount back to the POS Terminal 122 through the securityinterfaces 125 as a part of the normal credit card approval process. Asecond way would be to apply the discount to the monthly statement ofthe consumer in the credit card computer system 130. And a third waywould be for the coupon discounts to be accumulated and reimbursed tothe consumer through the issuance of a check from either the credit cardsystem 130 or the marketer system 104.

There are also a number of ways by which coupon offers can be deliveredto consumers. FIG. 2 provides an exemplary screen shot of what an emaildelivered version of a coupon offer might look like. This illustratedoffer is for 20% off of purchases at Retailer XYZ. As in a normal email,there is a header section 202. This section specifies the source of thecoupon offer, the date, the person for whom the offer is intended, andthe subject of the coupon offer. The screen image 200 shows the entirecoupon offer, including the addressing section 202 and the main messagewindow 204. Within the main message window 204 is a clickable target 206that allows the consumer to select this offer for storing his or hercoupon organizer/credit card. The offer 200 can also provide usefulinformation to the consumer such as the location of nearby storesthrough the target 208 and/or an option for changing the consumer'spreferences for receiving emails from the marketer 104 via the clickabletarget 210.

FIG. 3 shows a pop-up window 310 that could be presented to a consumerafter the consumer had clicked the target 206 to accept the coupon offer200. In the example shown here, the consumer does not presently have acoupon database 102 associated with the consumer's credit card, becausein the pop-up window 310 the offer is being described as the consumer's“first coupon.” The pop-up window also provides fields for theconsumer's email address 312, first name 314, zip code 316, and password318. It also provides options for whether the consumer desires toreceive other promotional offers from the marketer 104 through theindicated check boxes 320. The clickable target 322 allows the consumerto submit his or her selections to the marketer 104 so that the acceptedoffer can be stored in a new or existing database 102.

FIG. 4 shows a screen shot from a graphical user interface for thecoupon database 102. Shown in this graphical display are records of thecoupon offers that may be accepted by the consumer with whom the coupondatabase 102 is associated. The first such record 402 shows the entryfor the coupon offer 200 that has been discussed above. Fields shown forthis record includes the advertiser 404, a brief description of theoffer 406, the expiration date 408, and merchant contact information410. Also provided is a means to delete offers from the coupon database102, which is provided by the “DELETE” checkbox 412. The user interface400 also includes items to assist the consumer in navigating andorganizing the contents of their coupon database. For example, clickabletargets 414 are provided to allow the consumer to search, for example,by advertiser 404 or expiration date 408. Alternatively, the columnheaders for the columns 404 through 410 could be clickable in order tosort on those fields. Also provided are a number of coupon categories416, which can allow the consumer to filter down the many offers intomore manageable groups.

FIG. 5 illustrates a screen shot of a confirming email that may be sentto a consumer upon successful redemption of one of his coupons. Thisconfirmation email 500 is one of a number of types of email that may besent to a consumer according to their email preferences, which may beupdated by clicking on the target 502 shown in the email 500. Alsoprovided are targets by which a consumer can forward coupon offers totheir friends through clickable target 504, add the coupon database linkto their “Favorites” through the clickable target 506, or be takendirectly to their coupon database through the target 508.

FIG. 6 is a process flow diagram for the collection and redemption ofvirtual coupons by consumers using their credit cards or other paymentsystems. At block 602 a consumer's coupon database 102 is established.This database 102 can be set up in a number of ways, such as bypre-enrolling a consumer using credit card, email, and other consumerinformation provided by the list owner. Multiple consumers may bepre-enrolled at one time by using the information provided by the listowner. Alternatively, the consumer can subscribe directly, and in someinstances this may occur before a coupon offer has been sent to theconsumer (such as described with respect to block 606)). The coupondatabase may have consumer profile information associated with it,including information about the consumer's coupon preferences, such thattargeted coupon offers can be sent to the particular consumer.

In accordance with embodiments described in this application, at block604 the consumer's coupon database 102 is associated with one of theconsumer's credit cards or other payment system. This association may beat the marketer site 104 (which may store the actual consumer creditcard number or an encoded version thereof), it may be at the credit cardcomputer site 130 (which may store the consumer account number that isassociated with the consumer at the marketer 104), or the associationmay be through a card-matching agent 830. The card-matching agent 830(see FIGS. 8-10) may be physically separate from both the marketer site104 and the credit card computer site 130, or, in those systems usingthe agent 830, it may be provided by a logically separate but physicallyco-located item at one of those sites. The card-matching agent 830provides the advantage that the marketer 104 can send out coupon offersand process coupon redemptions without having to be provided actualconsumer credit card information. Accordingly, the matching agent 830can provide enhanced security for the coupon transactions.

Still referring to FIG. 6, at block 606 coupon offers are delivered andpresented to consumers 103. The means of presentment may be through massemails using a list owned by the marketer 104 or a list that is leasedfrom a list owner 810. The list can be sent from the marketer 104 or thelist owner 810. The offer can also be made to cell phone, cable, orinteractive television subscribers through messages sent to them, inwhich case their service providers for their respective services may actas the list owners 810, as they would have the consumer's electroniccontact address and credit card or other payment system information. Asother alternatives to mass emailing, the coupon offers can be presentedand delivered to consumers 103 through web banner ads, possibly based onthe consumers 103 already having an account with the marketer 104, oralso possibly without the consumers 103 having such accounts. No matterthe approach used above, it may be desirable to provide for the sendingof coupon offers to consumers not registered with the marketer 104,allowing the consumers to register when they electronically accept thecoupon for storage in their coupon database 102.

Still referring to FIG. 6, and in a more specific embodiment method isdescribed here such as might be employed with the system illustrated inthe systems of FIGS. 8-10 (discussed below). For this embodiment, themarketer 104 creates details of an offer for the merchant/advertiser120/820. Within block 606, the marketer 104 sends the coupon offer to amatching agent 830. The list owner also sends a list 810 of associatedemail addresses 812 and credit card numbers 814 to the matching agent830. The matching agent 830 can, at this stage or in block 604, massenroll the list with the marketer 104, depending on business models andwhether the list owner has permission to mass enroll the list 810 underthe prescribed conditions with its list members. Whether or not the list810 has been mass enrolled, the marketer 104 can then send to the listowner an “enabled offer,” that may be characterized, for instance, byhaving embedded identification/validation numbers that will associate aparticular offer with a particular consumer. The validation numbers orother consumer identifier provides a measure of security against fraudor coupon misuse. The list owner 810 in turn presents the enabled offersto the consumers 103, who may receive the offers at their PCs 110,interactive TVs 109 a, PDAs 109 b, or cell phones 109 c (see FIG. 10).No matter the sources for the validation numbers, consumer identifiers,or enabled offers, the coupon offers can be presented to the consumers103 by a number of different sources and through a number of differentmedia.

At block 608, and still referring to FIG. 6, coupons that have beenselected or accepted by a consumer are stored in the consumer's coupondatabase 102. This storage can be as a result of the consumer clickingan “I accept” target on received email or on a banner ad or other couponoffer presented to the consumer, or the storage can be the result of anautomatic process by which coupons are automatically placed in theconsumer's coupon database 102 in accordance with the consumer's storedcoupon preferences.

As shown in block 610, the coupons that were stored in the consumer'scoupon database at block 608 can be redeemed by using the consumer'scredit card that is associated with the consumer's coupon database 102.The credit card may be used at a “brick and mortar” or on-line merchant120. Upon use of the credit card, the merchant 120 will send anAuthorization Request (“AR”) to the credit card company server 132through security interface units 125. In such a transaction, typicallythe entity logically referred to here as the credit card company server132 is comprised of a credit clearing bank or acquiring bank computersystem that communicates with the merchant 120, a credit card issuingcomputer system that manages the cardholder/consumer accounts, and acredit card association server that is associated with the particularcredit card association, such as Visa® or MasterCard®. These variousservers all communicate in order to clear the ARs and reconcile thecardholders' credit card statements. Once the AR has been cleared, thecredit card company server 132, which as discussed above comprises theservers of one or more entities, will send an Approval Code (“AC”) backto the merchant 120 for the requested transaction. This transaction willalso trigger the redemption of qualifying purchases for which theconsumer 103 has a stored credit card offer, although there are be anumber of possible methods by which this redemption can be accomplished.

Still referring to the redemption block 610 of FIG. 6, the redemption ofthe coupon can be applied at the merchant POS terminal 122, it can beapplied to the consumer's credit card statement by the credit cardmainframe 132, or it can be paid by a separate check or credit be sentto the consumer 103. Using any method, the credit card server 132 willcommunicate with the credit card interface server 108 at the marketer104 to determine for a particular cardholder/consumer whether aparticular purchase included products for which the consumer hadaccepted and stored a coupon offer in the consumer's coupon database102. Normally, the AR/AC communications sent between a merchant 120 anda credit card company server 132 do not include specific transactiondata about what particular items have been purchased. Thesecommunications typically comprise just top-level transactional data suchas the amount purchased and the cardholder identity. Should actualcoupon clearing at the merchant POS 120 be desired, however, it would bepossible to embed specific transactional data in the AR and particularredemption data in the AC, such that the coupon discount can be appliedat the POS. It is also possible to communicate over a separate, parallelcommunications channel, such as the Internet or an intranet, or aVirtual Private Network (“VPN”) to separately request and apply a coupondiscount between the merchant POS and the credit card server 132 or adatabase server (such as credit card interface server 108 or virtualdocument server 106 or another server) for the consumer database 102. Itis still further possible to communicate, as described above or usingother means, the transaction details including items purchased in orderto separately reconcile qualifying purchases and to apply the coupondiscount to the consumer's credit card statement or otherwise provide aseparate credit or payment to the consumer for the redeemed coupons.

Referring now to FIG. 7, an attribute file is associated with a couponoffer to facilitate the filtering and storage of the virtual couponoffers in the consumers' coupon databases. FIG. 7 illustrates a datastructure 730 describing an example of how attribute information 740 canbe set up and associated with a virtual coupon offer information 741.Information contained within the attribute file 740, which is associatedwith the VRCD data file 741, might include a merchant ID 742, offer orpromotion ID 743, user ID 744, or other attributes 745. Other attributesmight include merchant class, website URL, merchant address, map, andemail information.

FIG. 8 provides a block diagram for a system for the redemption ofcoupon offers stored on a consumer's credit card. There are manydifferent ways in which such a system can be configured, and the systemof FIG. 8 provides one such system. Common to the embodiments disclosedin this application are an advertiser 820, which may be synonymous withthe merchant 120 or may be a separate entity with a direct or indirectbusiness relationship with the merchant 120. The advertiser 820 providesto a marketing entity 104 a definition of an offer that it wishes to bemade to a certain group. The marketer 104 may have its own list fordistribution or it may receive a list from a list owner 810. In thisembodiment, the consumers 103 are associated with credit cardholderaccounts. In this example, for instance, the list owner 810 may have alist of email addresses 812 and credit card numbers 814 for eachconsumer 103.

In the embodiment of FIG. 8, the actual credit card numbers are notprovided to the marketer 104, but instead are passed through acard-matching agent 830, which may be an entity that is separate fromthe credit card company 130 or it may be a separate function provided bythe credit card company 130. The card-matching agent 830 provides thelist 810 in this embodiment with encoded credit card numbers or consumeridentifiers, which the card-matching agent 830 can later use to identifyredeemed offers.

Still referring to the embodiment of FIG. 8, once the marketer 104 hasreceived the list of consumers 103 and has received a defined offer fromthe advertiser 820, the marketer 104 can provide these offers to thelist 810 of consumers via email or through other delivery means such asa web-based banner ad, interactive television ad, wireless PersonalDigital Assistant (“PDA”) offer, cell phone offer, or through othermeans. The consumer 103 can then accept the coupon offer by clicking ona clickable button or other means provided in the offer. Upon acceptingthe offer, a message is sent from the consumer back to the marketer 104and the offer can be saved at the consumer's registered user website840. The hardware at the marketer site 104 can be implemented in numberof ways. For example, a virtual document server 106 as shown in FIG. 1can be provided at the marketer site in order to email or otherwisedeliver the coupon offers to the consumer. This virtual document server106 may also be configured to receive the accepted coupon offers fromthe consumer devices 109, 110, store those accepted offers in theconsumer database 102, and reflect the consumer's accepted coupon offersat the registered user website 840. In those instances where theconsumer is not already registered for a website 840 and/or a consumerdatabase 102 with the marketer 104, the consumer can be directed toregister with the marketer 104 such as by the method shown in FIG. 3.

Referring further to FIG. 8, once the accepted coupon offers are storedin the consumer database 102 (see FIG. 1), the marketer site 104 ispreferably synchronized with the credit card company 130 either directlyor through the card-matching agent 830. There are a number of differentways to configure the synchronization process between the marketer 104and the credit card company 130. In the embodiment of FIG. 8, forinstance, once a coupon offer has been accepted and stored at theregistered user website 840 and coupon database 102, a “coupon notice”is sent to the card-matching agent 830, which may thereupon be preparedto redeem that accepted coupon offer when the consumer/cardholder useshis credit card to make a qualified purchase at the merchant 120. Thus,when the consumer 103 makes his purchase at the merchant 120, the POSterminals 122 may send an AR to the credit card company 130. Thistransaction may immediately or later be cleared through thecard-matching agent 830 to determine whether a qualified purchase usingan accepted coupon offer has been made. If so, the card-matching agent830 will apply a credit either to the consumer's credit card statementaccording to the credit card mainframe server 132, or this credit may betransmitted back to the merchant 120 through its POS terminal 122 sothat the discount can be applied directly at the Point-Of-Sale (“POS”)terminal 122.

When checking specific transaction data against the consumer's coupondatabase 102, the POS 120 may communicate through the credit card site130, or, as shown by the double dashed lines connecting the two sites120,830, it may communicate directly with the matching agent 830. ThePOS 120 may also communicate in either instance directly with themarketer 104. Thus, the coupon database 102 may be located at either themarketer site 104 or the matching agent site 830, or may be at anotherlocation. The transaction data from the POS can be compared to thestored accepted promotional offers in the coupon database 102, and thattransaction data may be fed directly from the POS site 120 to thelocation of the coupon database 102 or it may go indirectly, throughanother site such as the matching agent 830. When an accepted promotionoffer is found in the coupon database 102, a “redemption notice” may besent to the card-matching agent from the site, such as marketer 104,that is hosting the coupon database 102. In those instances where thecard-matching agent 830 maintains the coupon database 102 and receivesthe transaction data from the POS 120, however, the “coupon notice” and“redemption notice” between the two sites may not be used. In someembodiments, on the other hand, parallel databases may exist at themarketer site 104 and the card-matching agent site 830. In suchinstances, there still may be a synchronization process between the twodatabases, even if no explicit “redemption notice” or “coupon notice” issent between them.

FIG. 9 provides a block diagram or network diagram for a couponredemption system that is configured differently from the couponredemption system of FIG. 8. In the embodiment of FIG. 9, instead of themarketer 104 sending out the coupon offers to the consumers 103, thelist owner 810 performs this function. To enable the list owner 810 tosend out these coupon offers and to synchronize these offers with theconsumer credit cards and credit card companies 130 and with theparticular offers, the list owner 810 provides its list to thecard-matching agent 830, as was done in FIG. 8. The card-matching agent830 again provides this list with the encoded credit card numbers orconsumer identifiers to the marketer 104, which then associates the listwith offers and validation codes. The updated list, associated withpromotional offers and validation codes, is provided back to thecard-matching agent 830, which then passes this information on to thelist owner 810. The list owner 810 delivers the promotional offers tothe consumers 109 using one of the methods described with respect to theembodiment of FIG. 8 or another method.

As before with respect to FIG. 8, the consumer 103 can accept the offersmade to him or her, and in this instance that acceptance would cause anotification to be sent to the registered user website 840 and coupondatabase 102 in order to store the offer in the user website 840. Aswith the embodiment of FIG. 8, the marketer 104 could then send a couponnotice to the card-matching agent 830, which could remain incommunication with the credit card company 130 to insure that the couponoffer discount is applied to either the consumer's purchase at themerchant POS 120 or is applied to the consumer's credit card statement.

FIG. 10 illustrates and emphasizes that the systems and methodsdescribed above can be used in networks other than Internet and/ortraditional email delivery networks 105. For example, as shown herecoupon offers can be delivered to consumers through interactivetelevision networks, represented in FIG. 10 by network hub 1010 andconsumer device 109 a or to PDAs or cell phones as shown by hub 1020 andconsumer devices 109 b-c. The form of these coupon offers may be similarto those illustrated in FIGS. 2-3, and user interfaces at the marketer104 could be provided similar to those shown in FIG. 4. Confirmationscan be made similar to the ones shown in FIG. 5. The user interfaces,however, need not be limited to the approaches shown in these precedingfigures. For example, with current cell-phone technology and/or PDAtechnology, the displays provided on these devices are typically smallerthan would be provided in a computer terminal or interactive televisionset, and accordingly reduced screens can be used. In some instances, theconsumer communication devices may not have display screens at all, andit would be possible to configure these offers to be made and acceptedby means other than visual displays. For example, voice response systemscould be used to make and receive the coupon offers to and from theconsumers. Such acceptance by key presses and/or vocalization can beapplied to both cell-phone-based and land-based phone offers.

When employing the systems of the type shown in FIG. 10, because of theproprietary nature of the networks through which these offers are madeand received, the coupon offers would typically be both made andreceived through an interactive media server 1030 acting through thehubs 1010, 1020 of the proprietary networks. As before, a card-matchingagent 830 can be provided to translate credit card numbers to and fromconsumer identification numbers or to otherwise encode or disguise thecredit card numbers from the marketer 104. The interactive media server1030 may also in this embodiment provide the web interface 840 wherebyconsumers can manage their virtual coupons that have been accepted andstored in their coupon databases 102.

By accepting the coupon offers through their proprietary networks viathe hubs 1010, 1020, these accepted coupon offers are stored in theconsumers' databases 102, whereupon the credit card interface server 108can synchronize the accepted coupon offers with the consumers' creditcard accounts with the credit card company 130. The card-matching agent830 again can provide the translation between credit card numbers andconsumer identifiers or equipped credit card numbers through which theconsumers are known to the marketer 104.

Upon redemption of the coupon offer by the consumer 109 by the use ofhis associated credit card at the merchant 120, the merchant 120 sendsthe transaction data to the credit card company 130 and/or the matchingagent 830. The matching agent 830, the credit card company 130, or thecredit card company through the matching agent 830 or directly throughthe marketer 104, depending on how the system is set up, then matchesthe transaction data to the consumer's credit card, whereupon thediscount is either applied directly at the merchant 120 or to theconsumer's credit card statement.

Although the various methods described herein have been described forimplementation in a general purpose computer selectively activated orreconfigured by software, one of ordinary skill in the art would alsorecognize that such methods may be carried out in hardware, in firmware,or in more specialized apparatuses constructed to perform the methods.Further, as used herein, a “client” should be broadly construed to meanany computer or component thereof directly or indirectly connected orconnectable in any known or later-developed manner to a computernetwork, such as the Internet. A “client” should also be broadlyconstrued to mean one who requests or gets the file, and the “server” isthe entity that downloads the file.

References to credit cards in the specific embodiments above should beunderstood to refer broadly to other payments systems and methods suchas debit cards, electronic payment systems, automated billing systems,or other payment systems, including other billing systems described inthis application. “Coupons,” “coupon offers,” and “promotional offers”should be broadly construed to include tickets, vouchers purchased forvalue, and other items that are redeemable or otherwise have value, suchas frequent flyer miles or other “points” or “credits” that may beredeemable for reward goods and/or services.

In all the above-described embodiments, the actual locations of thecoupon databases and the nature of the communications between differentsites may be adapted depending on system design considerations. Forexample, depending on the relative locations of the coupon databases andthe sites receiving transaction data from the POSs, it may not benecessary to have redemption notices and coupon notices sent. Further,depending on where offers are “built” from lists of electronic contactaddressers and advertiser information, it may not be necessary in someinstances to send lists and offers with validation codes and/orcardholder ID numbers among the list owner, card matching agent, andmarketer. Registered user websites may be provided for consumers tomaintain their coupon databases, but it not necessary to provide suchwebsites. When provided, the websites could be hosted by the marketer,card matching agent, list owner, or other entity. The registered userwebsite may be an interface to the coupon database or to anotherdatabase that may be synchronized with the coupon database.

Applicant intends that the claims shall not invoke the application of 35U.S.C §112, ¶ 6 unless the claim is explicitly written inmeans-plus-step or means-plus-function format.

1. A method of distributing promotional offers to consumers, the methodcomprising: a) establishing a list of electronic contact addresses for aplurality of consumers; b) creating a plurality of enabled promotionaloffers, each enabled promotional offer including validation informationthat identifies it with a particular consumer; c) distributing theenabled promotional offers via the electronic contact addresses for theplurality of consumers, wherein the enabled promotional offers can beelectronically accepted by at least some of the particular consumerswith whom they are identified without redeeming the accepted offers; d)upon the electronic acceptance of at least one of the enabledpromotional offers by at least one consumer, placing the unredeemedaccepted promotional offer in a coupon database associated with the atleast one consumer; e) establishing or maintaining an association of theat least one consumer's coupon database with the at least one consumer'spayment system; and f) electronically receiving a redemption of theaccepted promotional offer by means of the consumer's presentment of theassociated payment system for purchasing the subject matter of theaccepted promotional offer.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein theestablishing or maintaining further comprises establishing ormaintaining the at least one consumer's coupon database with the atleast one consumer's payment system at a marketer site.
 3. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the establishing or maintaining further comprisesestablishing or maintaining the at least one consumer's coupon databasewith the at least one consumer's payment system at a matching agentsite.
 4. The method of claim 1 and further comprising establishing theat least one consumer's coupon database associated with the at least oneconsumer's payment system upon the at least one consumer's electronicfirst acceptance of the enabled promotional offer.
 5. The method ofclaim 1 wherein to accept the enabled promotional offer and place theaccepted promotional offer in the at least one consumer's coupondatabase requires that the at least one consumer associate a paymentsystem with the consumer's coupon database.
 6. The method of claim 1wherein the at least one consumer's coupon database was previouslyexisting when the enabled promotional offer was distributed to the atleast one consumers.
 7. The method of claim 6 and further comprisingassociating the coupon database with the at least one consumer's paymentsystem upon the consumer's acceptance of the enabled promotional offer.8. The method of claim 1 wherein the payment system is selected from thegroup consisting of: credit cards, debit cards, electronic paymentaccounts, consumer billing systems, cell-phone-based electronic paymentsystems, and PDA-based electronic communication systems.
 9. The methodof claim 1 wherein the form of distributing the enabled promotionaloffers is chosen from the group consisting of: emails, banner ads,interactive television, cell phones, satellite phones, land-basedphones, PDA-based wireless devices, and electronic kiosks.
 10. Themethod of claim 1 and further comprising detecting the plurality ofconsumers' locations.
 11. The method of claim 10 wherein the enabledpromotional offers are distributed to at least some of the detectedconsumers according to the consumers' detected locations.
 12. The methodof claim 11 wherein the enabled promotional offers are distributed to atleast some of the detected consumers according to the time of theconsumers' detected presence.
 13. The method of claim 10 wherein themethod of detecting the consumer's location is selected from the groupconsisting of: use of a satellite-based positioning system; use oftriangulation from land-based radio transmission; detection of whichtransmission tower is communicating with a consumer's cell-basedelectronic device; and detection of a communication hub communicatingwith a consumer's local-area-network-based electronic device.
 14. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the times at which certain offers are made toconsumers are according to consumers' stored preferences associated withthe consumers' coupon databases.
 15. The method of claim 1 wherein thetimes at which certain offers are made to consumers are according toadvertisers' preferences.
 16. The method of claim 1 wherein the valuesof at least some of the promotional offers diminish with time.
 17. Themethod of claim 16 wherein the values diminish with time relative to thetimes the offers were distributed.
 18. The method of claim 16 whereinthe values diminish with time relative to the times the offers wereaccepted.
 19. The method of claim 16 wherein the values of thepromotional offers diminish with time in steps shorter than a singleday.
 20. The method of claim 16 wherein the diminishing-valuepromotional offers are made to consumers according to their geographiclocations.
 21. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of theelectronic contact addresses are Internet addresses and wherein thedistributing of the promotional offers is at least in part via theInternet.
 22. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of theelectronic contact addresses are interactive television addresses andwherein the distributing of the promotional offers is at least in partvia interactive television.
 23. The method of claim 1 wherein at leastsome of the electronic contact addresses are cellular phone numbers andwherein the distributing of the promotional offers is at least in partvia cellular phone network communications.
 24. The method of claim 1wherein at least some of the electronic contact addresses are satellitecommunication network addresses and wherein the distributing of thepromotional offers is at least in part via a satellite communicationnetwork.
 25. The method of claim 1 wherein the coupon database isestablished in a coupon server.
 26. The method of claim 25 wherein atleast one consumer purchase is cleared through a credit card server, andfurther comprising the credit card server communicating with the couponserver to determine whether the at least one consumer has an acceptedpromotional offer to be redeemed by the purchase.
 27. The method ofclaim 1 and further comprising sending an email to the consumernotifying of the successful redemption of the redeemed promotionaloffer.
 28. A method of distributing promotional offers to consumers, themethod comprising: a) establishing a list of electronic contactaddresses for a plurality of consumers; b) creating a plurality ofenabled promotional offers, each enabled promotional offer includingvalidation information that identifies it with a particular consumer; c)establishing a coupon database for each of the plurality of consumers;d) registering a payment system for each of the plurality of consumers;e) distributing the enabled promotional offers to the electronic contactaddresses for the consumers with whom the promotional offers areidentified, wherein the enabled promotional offer can be electronicallyaccepted by the identified consumer without redeeming the offers; f)upon the electronic acceptance of the enabled promotional offer by theidentified consumer, placing the unredeemed accepted promotional offerin the coupon database associated with that consumer; and g)electronically receiving a redemption of the accepted promotional offerby means of the consumer's presentment of the associated payment systemfor purchasing the subject matter of the accepted promotional offer. 29.The method of claim 28 wherein the payment system is selected from thegroup consisting of: credit cards, debit cards, electronic paymentaccounts, consumer billing systems, cell-phone-based electronic paymentsystems, and PDA-based electronic communication systems.
 30. The methodof claim 28 wherein the form of distributing the enabled promotionaloffers is chosen from the group consisting of: emails, banner ads,interactive television, cell phones, satellite phones, land-basedphones, PDA-based wireless devices, and electronic kiosks.
 31. Themethod of claim 28 and further comprising detecting the plurality ofconsumers' locations, and wherein the promotional offer is distributedto at least some of the detected consumers according to the consumers'detected locations.
 32. The method of claim 31 wherein the method ofdetecting the consumer's location is selected from the group consistingof: use of a satellite-based positioning system; use of triangulationfrom land-based radio transmission; detection of which transmissiontower is communicating with a consumer's cell-based electronic device;and detection of a communication hub communicating with a consumer'slocal-area-network-based electronic device.
 33. The method of claim 28wherein at least some of the electronic contact addresses are selectedfrom the group consisting of: Internet addresses, wherein thedistributing of the promotional offers is at least in part via theInternet; interactive television addresses, wherein the distributing ofthe promotional offers is at least in part via interactive television;cellular phone numbers, wherein the distributing of the promotionaloffers is at least in part via cellular phone network communications;and satellite communication network addresses, wherein the distributingof the promotional offers is at least in part via a satellitecommunication network.